Enemy (2013 film)
|screenplay = Javier Gullón |based on = |starring = |music = |cinematography = Nicolas Bolduc |editing = Matthew Hannam |studio = |distributor = *Alfa Pictures }} |released = |runtime = 90 minutes |country = |language = English |budget = |gross = $3.4 million }} 'Enemy' is a 2013 Canadian-Spanish psychological thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve, produced by M. A. Faura and Niv Fichman and written by Javier Gullón, loosely adapted from José Saramago's 2002 novel ''The Double. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal in a dual role as two men who are physically identical, but different in personality. Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, and Isabella Rossellini co-star. It is internationally co-produced by production companies from Spain and Canada. The film premiered in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2013. It was then released on March 14, 2014, by A24. It earned $3.4 million at the box office and received positive reviews. The film earned five Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Director for Villeneuve, as well as a Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for Gadon and Best Motion Picture. It was named Best Canadian Film of the Year at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2014. Plot A man attends an erotic show featuring a man and a woman, at an underground club, which culminates with the woman naked and on the verge of crushing a live tarantula under her platform high-heel. Adam Bell, a college history professor, lives a quiet, monotonous life. He rents a film, Where There's a Will There's a Way, on the recommendation of a colleague, and spots an actor who looks strikingly like himself, briefly, in the film as a bellhop. Searching online, Adam identifies the actor as Anthony Claire, whose stage name is Daniel Saint Claire. Adam rents the other two films in which Anthony has appeared and becomes obsessed with the man, who appears to be his physical doppelgänger. Immediately afterwards, Adam searches some boxes in his own house and finds a photo of someone who looks like himself, with a woman's hand over his shoulder. However, part of the photo is torn out, making the woman impossible to identify. Adam stalks Anthony, visiting his agency and discovering where he lives. Upon driving to Anthony's apartment, Adam calls Anthony's home on a payphone which Anthony's wife, Helen, answers. She mistakes Adam's voice for Anthony's and tries to playfully banter with him, but Adam insists he is not Anthony. This frightens Helen, and Adam abruptly ends the call. Helen later confronts Anthony about the phone call and Adam's existence, but Anthony insists he knows nothing about Adam. Unconvinced, Helen researches Adam, discovers the college where he teaches, and seeks him out. Sitting on a bench outside his classroom, Helen soon finds him and is visibly stunned at his exact resemblance to her husband. Adam does not realize who Helen is, but offers pleasantries which she reciprocates until Adam returns to class. Anthony eventually calls Adam back and agrees to meet in a hotel room, where they discover that they are perfectly identical, even having the same scar. Adam is taken aback by Anthony's direct personality and how exactly alike they are in appearance; feeling uneasy and uncomfortable due to this, he tells Anthony that meeting was a mistake, leaves the hotel room, and speeds away. The next day, Anthony follows Adam and sees Adam's girlfriend, Mary, whom he finds attractive. He starts following her to work on his motorcycle, wearing a dark helmet so she cannot see his face. Anthony plots to accuse Adam of having sexual relations with Anthony's wife so that he can shame and manipulate Adam to give up his time with Mary over the weekend. Anthony demands Adam's clothes and car keys in order to get things even by taking Mary out for a romantic weekend getaway. He promises to disappear forever after that weekend. Adam complies, and Anthony takes Mary to the hotel after work. Meanwhile, Adam goes to Anthony's apartment in retaliation and is immediately recognized as Anthony by the apartment concierge, who lets him in without the keys but also desperately asks if 'Anthony' could take him back to the underground sex club. Inside the apartment Adam finds a framed photo on a shelf which looks like the one he had found earlier in his own house, but now the photo is intact, and the woman is revealed to be Helen. Adam tries to act as Anthony in front of Helen, but it appears that she is not fooled by his attempts. However, she conceals her suspicions to Adam and asks him to join her in bed, pretending she has not noticed the switch. She cuddles up to him and, to his surprise, asks, "Did you have a good day at school?" He feigns ignorance and she drops it. Later that night, Helen wakes and walks to the living room to find Adam crying and apologizing; she tells him she wants him to stay, and they make love. Back at the hotel, Mary panics during sex when she notices Anthony's marriage-ring mark and asks who he really is. Anthony claims he has always had the mark. She forces Anthony to drive her home; the two get into a fight in the car which results in a high-speed crash with the car being destroyed and the passengers presumably dead. The next day, Adam dresses in Anthony's clothes and opens the confidential letter received earlier from the agency and finds the underground-club key, given only to select members. Helen gets out of the shower and tells him to call his mother, then enters the bedroom. Adam asks Helen if she is doing anything that night and tells her that he's going out, but she doesn't respond. As he enters the bedroom, he sees, instead of Helen, a room-sized tarantula cowering against the rear wall. Adam, with a resigned look, sighs. Cast *Jake Gyllenhaal as Adam Bell / Anthony Claire *Mélanie Laurent as Mary *Sarah Gadon as Helen Claire *Isabella Rossellini as Mother *Kedar Brown as a security guard *Darryl Dinn as the video store clerk *Joshua Peace as Carl, Adam's colleague *Tim Post as Anthony's concierge *Misha Highstead, Megan Mane, Alexis Uiga as the Ladies in the Dark Room *Jane Moffat as Eve (uncredited) *Stephen R. Hart as Bouncer (uncredited) Production Principal photography began on May 22, 2012 in Toronto. Analysis (Mother), Louise Bourgeois' sculpture at the National Gallery in Ottawa. Youtube Film critic Chris Stuckmann suggests the spider motif in ''Enemy represents the lead character's view of women.Chris Stuckmann, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9AWkqRwd1I Enemy explained], YouTube, April 24, 2014. Accessed February 25 2017.]] A review in Indiewire compared the film to Christopher Nolan's Memento, and called it an "engrossing Kafka-equesic provocative psychological thriller" that "doesn't reveal itself easily".Review: Denis Villeneuve's Terrifically Haunting 'Enemy' Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist, Indiewire, 13 March 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2015. Both director Villeneuve and leading actor Gyllenhaal spoke of their desire to make the film a challenging exploration of the subconscious.Interview: Jake Gyllenhaal Talks The Duality Of 'Enemy' And Why He Wants You To Be Confused, Alex Suskind, The Playlist, Indiewire, 11 March 2014. Retrieved 24 May 2018. To Villeneuve, Enemy is ultimately about repetition: the question of how to live and learn without repeating the same mistakes. Regarding the two physically identical characters: "You don't know if they are two in reality, or maybe from a subconscious point of view, there's just one," said Villeneuve. "It's maybe two sides of the same persona … or a fantastic event where you see another self." Gyllenhaal says that Enemy is "about a man who is married, his wife is pregnant, and he’s having an affair. He has to figure himself out before he can commit to life as an adult." Forrest Wickman of Slate points out that the opening line of the film, "Chaos is order yet undeciphered" is from José Saramago's The Double, the novel on which the film is based. Wickman suggests that Enemy is "a parable about what it's like to live under a totalitarian state without knowing it," and adds that the central irony is that even though the main character is an expert on the ways of totalitarian governments, he does not see the web that has overtaken the city until he is already stuck in it. To Wickman, Enemy suggests that this tendency to create totalitarian regimes is part of human nature, that it comes from within us; he cites Villeneuve's comment: "Sometimes you have compulsions that you can't control coming from the subconscious … they are the dictator inside ourselves." Reception Enemy received generally positive reviews from critics, with many critics comparing the movie's style and atmosphere favorably to the works of David Lynch. It has a 71% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 117 reviews, and a rating average of 6.53 out of 10. The site's consensus states: "Thanks to a strong performance from Jake Gyllenhaal and smart direction from Denis Villeneuve, Enemy hits the mark as a tense, uncommonly adventurous thriller." The film also has a score of 61 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 30 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". A. O. Scott, movie critic for The New York Times, wrote: "In any case, much of the fun in "Enemy," which is tightly constructed and expertly shot, lies in Mr. Gyllenhaal’s playful and subtle performances… Its style is alluring and lurid, a study in hushed tones and yellowy hues, with jolts of anxiety provided by loud, scary music." Enemy was also praised by David Ehrlich of Film.com for having "the scariest ending of any film ever made." Enemy opened in a single theater in North America and grossed $16,161, later expanding, with the widest release for the film being 120 theaters. It ended up earning $1,008,726 domestically and $2,388,721 internationally for a total of $3,397,447. References External links * * Category:2013 films Category:2010s psychological thriller films Category:Canadian films Category:Canadian thriller films Category:Canadian erotic films Category:Spanish films Category:Spanish thriller films Category:Spanish erotic films Category:English-language films Category:Erotic romance films Category:Erotic thriller films Category:Films based on thriller novels Category:Films based on Portuguese novels Category:Films directed by Denis Villeneuve Category:Films set in Toronto Category:Films shot in Toronto Category:A24 films Category:José Saramago Category:Canadian erotic thriller films